Investigators Believe Hotel Workers Helped Zeevi Assassins

Israeli security officers investigating the assassination of hawkish minister Rehavam Zeevi believe that employees at the Hyatt Hotel provided valuable information to his killers about the hotel's security measures and the minister's routines, Israel Radio reported, cited by the Tel Aviv-based Haaretz newspaper.

The security officials said that Zeevi was an "ideological refuser" of bodyguard protection and that he also ignored Shin Bet warnings and suggestions to switch hotels and change his routine. Efforts to get Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to intervene in the matter did not help.

On Thursday, Jerusalem police and the Shin Bet security service arrested a number of Palestinians from east Jerusalem for allegedly having a direct connection Zeevi's killing, the daily said.

Israeli analysts believe that the failures to foil counter-assassinations will encourage more Palestinians, and maybe others who work independently or are sent by Iran, to try and take advantage of the Shin Bet security breach.

The Israeli minister was shot dead by gunmen of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in response to the August assassination of its leader Abu Ali Mustapha پEAlbawaba.com